ABSTRACT

Container supply chain(CSC) is a specific type of supply chain with the rapid development ofcontainer transport and large-scale international trades. Under the backgroundsof financial crisis and green supply chain, time efficiency, cost efficiencyand energy consumption are all important to build CSC with high quality. Timeand cost are mainly pursued by the independent companies. Energy consumptionminimization now is encouraged by the government and other organization. It isvery important to build sustainable CSC. This study proposes a multi-objectivemodel to balance the three criteria. The CSC is simplified as a multi-epochsupply chain network. The model tries to optimize the structure of CSC tosatisfy the three objectives. The simulation study shows the efficiency of themodel and steps of solution. The approach produces a significant result forglobal management of CSC for the industries and governments. 

Keywords:Container supply chain, Efficiency,Energy consumption, multi-epoch supply network, Supplier selection, Supplychain design

1. Introduction

The time and cost aretwo direct objectives to select the structure of CSC. All companies havenoticed it and make decisions to minimize them. Energy consumption of CSC is becominganother important issue which absorbs increasing consideration from theindustrial organizations and governments. Energy problem is critical not onlyfor the entire country or government, but also for the independent companiesunder the context of financial crisis and the facing of exhaustion of energysources. The sustainable industry development recalls optimal solutions forenergy consumption in various industrial processes. Although Time and cost areimportant for the survival of companies, under the similar economical returns,the companies are also willing to take account into the energy problem. Especially,it will be supported by the authorities and governments. There are manyresearch results about the time and cost optimization, energy production andnew sources discovery. However, the distribution of energy in concreteindustrial processes is not focused on by the scholars. The holisticconsideration of them is difficult to be seen in the literature. Theoptimization and control of time, cost and energy will finally contribute tothe cost decrease and efficiency improvement in a long run.

Container supply chain(CSC) is playing a more and more important role in the development oftraditional industries as a kind of service supply chain. During the progress,the developments of containerized transportation and the extended global andcross-district trades excite the CSC as a strong force. Time and costobjectives are common criteria to design and choose CSC. Moreover, CSC can beviewed as an important aspect that reflects the energy consumption of variousintegrated industrial processes. Because of its scale, the optimization andcontrol of it will result in larger progress in energy reduction. However, thisimportance is not emphasized yet. With the development of CSC and the standardizationof the service, its position will be revealed.

In this study, the CSCis modeled by a multi-epoch supply chain network between supplies and the consumers.By the network analysis of extended directed graph, the nodes and the directedarcs are chosen and the CSC is designed. We consider the cost, time and energyconsumption at each node and arc. For each node and arc, the energy is presumedto be proportional to the container capacity.